Monthly Archives: October 2011

SoundCloud Voices is a new weekly Community feature focusing on new spoken word creators found on SoundCloud. It might be a podcast, radio show, audio book, interview, audio messages, a poem, anything! Keep an eye out every Thursday for a new post.

There’s been a lot of activity surrounding Occupy Wall Street of late and some of our SoundCloud community have been documenting the events, people and opinions with audio. Aside from ABC’s Dan Patterson who has used SoundCloud in combination with Storify, which you can view here, the following is a small collection of other SoundClouders who documented the events.

First up is Sean Sullivan a multimedia journalist from Massachusetts who interview Western Massachusetts residents who travelled to New York take part in the protests. Sean’s recordings were very much in the vein of an oral history project and reveal some interesting people,their stories and their thought provoking opinions on the topic. Respect to the Western Mass people!

Next up is Meg Robertson a radio/digital producer who took more of a field recording approach, capturing some of the fascinating crowd chants but also speeches and even readings of letters.

And finally, local station 77 WABC used SoundCloud to post the various interviews with protesters on topics ranging from universal health care, whose fault it is and taxing the rich. Take a listen here.

If you are interested in trying out SoundCloud as a spoken word podcast platform we are currently running a beta program which you can sign up for via this form. Successful candidates will be emailed with further details.

Found Sounds is a SoundCloud community series focusing on some of the most weird and wonderful sounds that can be found on SoundCloud. Count on new installments with some of our favorite sounds each Tuesday!

Photo by davidsonscott15

Alarmingly loud, this weeks Found Sounds are used as warnings, and to keep us safe. I took a look in to the ‘cloud to find the sounds of sirens. Police, Ambulances, fire engines all have sirens and are used to keep us safe, they use these high pitch sounds to warn us something is happening and to make people aware. But it’s interesting how these sounds are not universal, and how they’re translated differently from country to country.

‘Nee naw, nee naw, nee naw’, the sounds of a siren pierce everything around you. How do they translate for you? Here’s an ambulance in Spain cutting through the streets to bring safety:

In some cities the sounds of sirens don’t stop all night. They become a part of the ambient sound of the city. This is definitely the case in New York City; as you can see from this ambient sound of the city, and the comments of the NYC citizens on the track:

We’ve all heard a siren at some point in our life, whatever city you’re in the guys driving the emergency service vehicles are doing a great job to keep us safe, and we thank them for that! Keep those sirens sounding.

That’s all for this week’s Found Sounds! Tune in next week for more crazy sounds from the ‘Cloud.

This Friday say “Hej” with me and help welcome Sebastian Ohm to the team in Berlin!

Hi Sebastian, thank you for taking the time to do this interview! How are you doing today?

Most excellent, kind Madam.

First, welcome to the SoundCloud team in Berlin! Can you tell us what your role entails and what you enjoy most about it so far?

I’m Iteration Sensei (Scrum Master) for the Content/MIR team and help my team translate ideas into code. As a developer I touch all parts of the stack in various programming languages from back-end to front-end. I currently focus on solving infrastructural tasks and scaling challenges which I enjoy quite a bit.

Where are you from originally? How do you like working in such an International office?

I’m originally from Emden (Niedersachsen, Germany), a small coastal town on the North Sea. I have to say that I haven’t spoken German at work since I moved to Berlin 3 ½ years ago, even before starting at SoundCloud. Fun fact: Canadians are everywhere. International companies like SoundCloud have an open and collaborative atmosphere that I enjoy being part of. It’s all about solving problems, not about red tape.

What are your favorite things to do in Berlin so far and what do you like about the city?

I enjoy the good coffee. There seem to be more and more places serving great coffee popping up everywhere. The little Asian girl in me is delighted by the number of recently opened bubble tea shops. I’m an avid cyclist and even though I’m not riding a fixie (a bike with 16 gears of which 8 work is pretty close), I enjoy biking around town. Berlin is best traveled and experienced by bike.

How were you introduced to SoundCloud?

I was introduced to SoundCloud at a Ruby User Group meeting that was held at the office. I had previously seen Sean talk about the AWS Infrastructure at various Berlin Tech Talks and always found the challenges to be interesting. When Eric announced the need for Ruby devs, my girlfriend made me apply. I rocked the challenge and here I am.

What do you like most about being a part of the SoundCloud team? (3 reasons)

1. Interesting work
2. Talented and knowledgeable co-workers
3. Open and communicative vibe

What are your favorite sounds you have found while scouring SoundCloud?